UCSB  I IRRARY 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


AA    000  822  264 


MEflEftjhH  r/lflCHMK  C/lOPEhCKOr  XFHLUTiflhCTBA 


Christianity  and  War 


Letters  of  a  Serbian  to  his  English  Friend 


5t!l> 


i^' 


c 


3 


hbyjOPh  --  1915 


3 


t\(-f\  II'  ' 


tlOW  quickly  have  flown  these  last  seven  years,  my 
dear  Friend,  since  we  bade  each  other  Farev/ell  at 
the  University.  Soon  after  our  parting  I  was  able  to 
greet  you  as  an  English  clergyman,  and  not  long  after- 
wards you  had  the  opportunity  to  greet  me  as  a  Serbian 
clergyman.  And  our  correspondence  has  continued  unin- 
terrupted till  to-day.  Can  you  remember  how  beauti- 
fully you  wrote  to  me  once:  "For  the  true  friendship  of 
two  men  there  exists  neither  distance,  time  nor  space; 
neither  does  national  frontier,  or  difference  of  Govern- 
ment, or  difference  of  Confession,  or  of  race  play  any 
part  here."  In  this  I  agreed  with  you.  Such  a  friend- 
ship in  truth  existed  between  us.  But  it  is  better  to  have 
and  to  feel  this  friendship  than  to  describe  it.  The  chief 
thing  is  that  we  were  friends  even  at  that  time  when  our 
respective  nations  were  not  yet  allied,  and  that  we  are 
friends  to-day,  and  that  we  shall  be  friends  to-morrow 
whatever  may  be  the  constellation  of  the  stars  in  heaven 
or  of  the  nations  upon  the  earth.  But  we  must  both 
confess  that  this  War  has  brought  ^  considerable  change 
in  our  soul-life:  it  has  strengthened  our  friendship.  For 
it  is  a  rule  that  War  inakes  kinsmen  more  akin  and 
friends  more  friendly.  As  birds  driven  by  the  storm 
gather  together  in  companies,  nestling  each  under  the 
other's  wing,  so  we  mortals  before  this  terrible  storm  of 
War  gather  together  more  closely  to  one  another,  under- 
stand one  another  more  intimately,  and  more  intimately 


mHBA     I^PKBA 


do  we  question  each  other.  'What  do  you  think  about 
the  War?'  I  asked  you,  and  you  sent  me  your  sermons 
and  addresses  edited  during  this  War.  From  these  I 
have  perceived  how  every  nerve  of  yours  has  quivered 
under  these  catastrophic  events. 

And  you  put  to  me  the  same  question.  On  Christ- 
mas Day  I  received  from  you  an  American  periodical, 
Everybody's  Magazine,  in  which  I  found  an  article  un- 
derlined by  you:  7/  the  Christians  fight,  are  they  still 
Christians?'  I  have  for  some  months  delayed  my 
answer.  For  meanwhile  Serbia  was  living  through  a 
second  devastating  crisis:  diseases  (the  first  crisis  was 
the  inrush  of  the  Austrians).  Therefore  I  was  wholly 
absorbed  by  the  frightful  misery  in  the  midst  of  which 
I  found  myself.  Permit  me  please,  my  Friend,  to  give 
you  now  an  answer  in  the  form  and  style  which  you 
desired. 


II 


Is  it  not  true,  my  Friend,  that  Europe  to-day  must 
stand  a  little  asham^ed  before  Asia?  Xot  that  Asia  has 
given  all  gods  to  humankind  and  Europe  none,  but  be- 
cause Europe  is  to-day  waging  a  war  which  Asia  could 
only  describe — in  the  most  imaginative  apocalyptic  form. 
Europe,  which  only  the  other  day  shone  so  lustrously  be- 
fore the  v.-orld,  to-day  is  shedding  around  herself  only 
red  and  black  rays — red  from  blood  and  black  from  sin. 
Nation  is  rising  against  nation,  race  against  race,  faith 
against  faith,  account  against  account,  earth  against 
heaven — and,  it  seems,  heaven  against  earth.  Hungry 
Chronos  devours  unsparingly  his  children.  All  previous 
catastrophes  of  Nature  from  which  humanity  suffered 


CHRISTIANITY   AND   WAR 


were  but  pin-pricks  in  comparison  with  this  one  which 
men  have  brought  upon  themselves.  All  the  earthquakes 
and  deluges,  all  the  conflagrations  and  plagues  of  the 
past  two  or  three  hundred  years  have  not  consumed  so 
many  human  lives,  and  brought  to  those  who  survive,  so 
much  pain,  suffering  and  despair  as  this  European  War 
has  already  done.  Has  the  earth  perhaps  slipped  her 
axis  ?  the  wise  men  ask  themselves.  Or  is  it  that  the  oc- 
cult powers  of  evil  have  so  beclouded  the  brain  of  the 
European  peoples  that  they  know  not  what  they  do? 
others  are  asking.  Hov/  can  it  be  that  men  who  have 
risen  to  nail  their  neighbours  on  the  cross  do  not  per- 
ceive that  while  they  crucify  others  they  are  crucifying 
themselves?  And  that,  in  causing  pain  to  others,  they 
must  inevitably  cause  the  same  pain  to  themselves  ?  And 
that  in  destroying  the  lives  of  others  they  are  also 
destroying  their  own  lives?  "For  we  are  members  one 
of  another."       (Ephesians  IV.  25). 

Where  is  religion,  where  Christianity?  Where,  in- 
deed, is  Christianity?  How  can  Chrstianity  be  recon- 
ciled with  War  ?  Why  does  not  Christianity  stop  War  ?  J 
The  whole  world  is  perplexed  and  troubled  by  these  ques- 
tions ;  questions  for  which  they  find  nowhere  a  clear  an- 
swer. Reading  American  journals,  I  notice  that  the  New 
World  ponders  these  questions  with  not  less  pain  than 
Europe — even  more  painfully  than  Europe! — as  a 
daughter  is  more  grieved  by  the  sufferings  of  her  mother 
than  is  the  mother  herself.  But  nobody  in  all  the  world 
feels  the  load  of  such  questions  like  the  ministers  of 
Christ  and  the  preachers  of  His  Gospel.  Be  assured,  my 
Friend,  that  the  Christian  people  and  their  ministers  in 
Serbia  'live  not  by  bread  alone',  but  also  search  sincerely 
and  painfully  for  the  answers  to  the  above  questions.  On 


JKHBA     EiPKBA 


that  account  allow  me  both  as  a  minister  of  the  Gospel 
and  as  an  eye-witness  of  the  War  to  give  the  same 
answer  to  you  that  I  have  given  to  my  Serbian  flock,  im- 
pelled as  I  am  by  the  same  spiritual  needs  as  all  religious 
men  of  the  Old  and  New  Worlds. 


Ill 


Where  is  Christianity?  That  is  the  first  question. 
My  answer  is:  Oyily  there  zvhere  suffering  is.  If  I  say 
that,  I  do  not  mean  unmerited  suffering  only,  but  merited 
suffering  too.  For  all  suffering  purifies  and  ennobles. 
Suft'ering  for  righteousness  is  always  suffering  caused 
by  others  and  suffering  for  unrighteousness  is  always 
suffering  caused  by  ourselves.  The  righteous  man  al- 
ways suffers,  either  for  those  who  have  lived  before 
him,  or  for  those  who  will  live  after  him.  The  cause  of 
a  good  man's  suffering  lies  outside  him ;  the  cause  of  a 
bad  man's  suffering  lies  Vv'ithin  him.  Just  as  suffering 
strengthens  the  good  man  in  his  goodness,  so  it  weakens 
the  bad  man  in  his  wickedness.  The  man  who  never  suf- 
fered either  in  soul  or  in  body  Vvas  never  a  Christian 
man.  The  history  of  Christianity  is  the  history  of  suf- 
fering in  all  its  myriad  forms.  The  Church  suffered 
either  from  the  persecutions  or  the  favours  of  the  State; 
either  from  outside  tyranny  or  internal  pride;  either 
from  philosophers  or  from  fools;  either  from  fanatics 
or  apostates;  from  hindrances  either  without  or  within. 
All  Church  history  is  interwoven  with  suffering, — and 
that,  the  suffering  of  sinners  and  of  saints.  The  sinners 
suffered  in  the  doing  of  the  sin;  the  saints  as  they  re- 
garded it.    Not  Judas  alone  suffered  because  of  his  great 


CHRISTIANITY   AND   WAR 


sin,  but  many  and  many  others,  yesterday  and  to-day, 
who  have  become  conscious  of  the  enormity  of  his  sin. 
In  respect  to  Judas,  I  think  that  his  soul  was  very  near 
to  Christianity  in  the  moment  when  he  suffered  those 
agonies  of  remorse.  And  the  Apostle  Paul  suffered 
when  he  merely  saw  the  idolatry  of  Ephesus  and  the  im- 
m.orality  of  Corinth ;  as  indeed  he  suffered,  too,  when  he 
beheld  in  spiritual  vision  the  sufferings  of  this  travailing 
creation.  (Rom.  VIII.  22).  All  great  souls  in  pagan  as 
well  as  in  Christian  times  have  best  loved  to  dwell  in 
their  melancholy  solitude  (Homer,  Heraclitus,  Or- 
pheus, Pythagoras,  Plato,  Virgil,  Seneca,  Basil,  Dante, 
St.  Bernard).  When  I  asked  one  of  my  pupils :  'How  do 
you  imagine  the  great  Fathers  of  the  Church?'  He  re- 
plied: ''As  men  who  never  smiled,"  and  I  did  not  object 
to  the  answer.  Indeed,  it  is  very  difficult  for  us  to  con- 
nect a  smile  with  the  mouth  of  Chrysostom,  Athanasius, 
or  Knox;  even  as  it  is  also  equally  difficult  for  us  to  dis- 
connect a  smile  from  the  lips  of  the  priest  of  Dionysus. 
But  behold :  as  have  been  those  great  men  who  expressed 
Christianit}^  in  ethical-dogmatical  formulae,  so  have 
been  also  the  men  who  expressed  it  in  verse,  in  colours, 
in  woodwork  or  in  stone.  Dante,  de  Vinci,  Michael 
Angelo  and  the  great  builders  of  Rheims  Cathedral,  of 
Notre  Dame  and  of  Westminster  Abbey  lived,  as  is  well 
know^n,  in  the  same  secret  melancholy  as  the  first  Fathers 
of  the  Church.  Such  were  the  great  modern  representa- 
tives of  Christianity  too:  Butler,  Lammenais,  Solovief, 
Nevrman.  Such  were,  finally,  the  great  exponents  of 
Christianity  in  literature:  Tolstoy,  Dickens  and  Dosto- 
jevsky.  There  has  never  been  in  the  world  any  saint 
happy  under  the  shadows  of  his  neighbours'  sins.  Why 
must  all  great  souls  be  melancholic?     Because  great 


m  H  B  A     U  P  K  B  A 


souls  always  suffer  in  the  sufferings  of  their  fellow  men. 
But  no  matter  how  dark  may  be  the  melancholy  of  a 
pure  Christian  soul,  it  is  never  darker  than  the  clouds 
through  which  pierce  the  rays  of  the  sun.  Christian  op- 
timism, like  the  distant  sun  of  our  universe,  penetrates 
those  melancholy  garments  which  enrobe  the  good  and 
suffering  souls  of  earth.  Thus  Christianity  is  not  a 
light  v/hich  dazzles  by  the  brilliance  of  its  burning  rays, 
but  rather  a  mild  and  tender  light  which  comes  through 
clouds  to  meet  and  greet  our  longing  souls. 

Is  there  any  Christian  spirit  among  the  European 
peoples  who  are  fighting  now?  That  is  the  question. 
Yes,  my  Friend,  I  say  Yes.  However  paradoxical  it 
may  seem,  I  maintain  that  in  this  War,  in  which  from 
day  to  day  are  being  killed  tens  of  thousands  of  human 
beings,  more  Christian  spirit  is  being  shown  than  in  the 
peace  of  yesterday. 


IV 


Do  you  not  think,  my  Friend,  that  the  first  quality 
of  the  Christian  spirit  is  humility  f  The  name  of  the  peace 
of  yesterday  w^as  Pride.  Proud  were  the  men  of  science 
of  their  knowledge,  the  artists  of  their  art,  the  nobility  of 
their  titles,  the  rich  of  their  riches, — and  all  living  men, 
in  general,  proud  of  their  fancied  immense  superiority 
in  the  scheme  of  things!  (cf.  Jeremiah  IX.  23.)  Be- 
fore this  War  the  men  of  science  imagined  that  they 
knev/  all  things;  the  nobility  that  they  alone  possessed 
noblemindedness ;  the  rich  that  they  had  all  riches,  and 
every  living  man,  in  general,  that  human  life  was  of  in- 
finitely more  value  than  any  other  kind  of  life  in  Nature: 


CHRISTIANITY   AND   WAR 


'Our  great  scientific  mind  can  save  humanity  from  all 
calamity,'  said  the  men  of  science.  'Our  wealth  is  the 
greatest  good  of  humankind,'  thought  the  rich.  'Our 
traditional  manners  and  prestige  keep  Society  in 
equilibrium,  imagined  the  nobility.  Our  life  is  by  far 
the  greatest  thing  in  Nature,  without  us  Nature  would 
be  blind  and  dead,' — such  was  the  conviction  of  the  ma- 
jority of  living  men.  People  were  talking  about  the 
Over-mind,  the  Over-might,  the  Over-state  (v.  Bern- 
hardi),  the  over-Man  (Nietsche).  Meanwhile,  the 
mighty  Alps  beheld  wth  scorn  all  human  works,  opinions 
and  generations  which  were  one  after  the  other,  down 
at  their  foot,  marching  to  their  oblivion  and  their  grave. 
The  spirit  of  humility  was  banished  to  the  peasant's 
hut  and  dwelt  amongst  the  poor  and  little.  Truly  the 
crowded  Cathedrals  remained  in  the  cities,  but  the  people 
in  their  pride  were  as  cold  as  the  ancient  pillars.  The 
spirit  of  humility  was  absent  from  politics,  science,  art, 
factory,  and  even  from  theology.  Religion  had  been 
reduced  to  theology,  theology  to  science,  and  science  to 
conceit.  This  spirit  ruled  most  of  all  in  Germany. 
Nietschianism,  which  was  only  the  final  phase  of  Ger- 
many's gradual  rise  in  pride  and  fall  in  humility  during 
the  last  100  years,  had  penetrated,  as  water  penetrates 
a  sponge,  the  whole  intellectual  and  social  life  of  Ger- 
many. In  more  than  twenty  German  Universities  was 
preached  and  taught  essentially  Nietschianism.  I  speak 
as  a  witness  who  has  himself  sought  light  at  German 
Universities.  In  these  Universities  all  principles,  re- 
ligions, social,  philanthropic,  and  ethical,  were  destroyed 
more  radically  than  the  howitzers  of  to-day  are  destroy- 
ing the  monuments  of  culture,  through  which,  as 
through  their  eyes,  look  down  upon  us  the  generations 


}KIIBA     IliPKBA 


who  have  gone  before  us  on  this  planet.  BibHcal  cri- 
ticism— these  sad  docta  ignorantia — left  behind  nothing 
of  the  Bible,  as  Lange  rightly  says,  but  the  covers. 
Philosophical  criticism  either  created  idols,  or  agitated 
for  idolatry,  or  exposed  the  great  thinkers  only  to  ridi- 
cule. Literary  criticism  has  done  nothing  but  sow  hot 
sand  upon  the  green  meadows.  Juristic  criticism  has 
eaten  into  and  corrupted  the  solid  juristic  conceptions  of 
thousands  of  years  and  stopped  only  with  respect  be- 
fore the  monstrous  theory  of  the  Ueberstaat  (Over- 
State),  which  the  ambition  of  neurotic  men  created  for 
a  day.  Social  criticism — even  in  the  middle  of  the  19th 
century — resulted  only  in  the  watchword:  der  Eincige 
und  sein  Eigenthum  (Max  Stirner).*) 

The  other  nations  of  Europe  were  somewhat  out- 
distanced by  Germany  in  her  foolish  destruction  of  the 
good  and  her  construction  of  monstrosities.  But  England 
and  Russia  remained  farthest  behind  upon  this  road, 
along  which  Germany  tugged  the  whole  world  to  certain 
ruin.  Even  in  these  latter  countries,  however  although 
they  were  the  most  sober,  there  was  room  enough  for 
pride, — scientific,  comercial,  artistic,  political. 

Then  came  the  War. 

I  don't  know  the  man  who  could  convince  me  that 
in  the  peace  of  yesterday  there  was  more  Christian 
spirit  than  in  the  War  of  to-day, — I  say  in  the  peace  of 
yesterday,  when  a  man  had  regularly  only  his  one  selfish 
sorrow,  than  in  the  War  of  to-day,  when  a  man  has 
many  sorrows  about  many  thousands  of  human  beings, 
his  brothers  and  compatriots. 


*)  The  single  individual  and  his  possessions. 

8 


CHRISTIANITY   AND   WAR 


Then  came  the  catastrophe,  and  pride  went  away. 
The  man  of  science  found  himself  in  the  same  trench 
with  the  ignorant  man;  the  peer  with  the  fisherman,  the 
millionaire  with  the  beggar.  What  a  merciless  contrast 
to  the  peace !  What  a  sudden  change  in  souls  and  hearts. 
What  a  rapid  reconciliation  in  the  appreciation  of  the 
new  standards  of  worth !  The  scientific  man  perceived 
that  he  was  not  much  wiser  than  the  ordinary  man.  The 
peer  was  astonished  by  the  unexpected  nobility  of  soul 
which  he  found  in  the  fisherman.  The  millionaire  felt 
himself  under  the  same  fate  as  the  beggar.  Humility! 
A  certain  Professor,  very  proud  of  his  great  knowledge, 
who  was  for  a  long  time  in  the  trenches  at  Belgrade  with 
the  simple  peasants,  told  me  once :  "I  was  a  long  time  in 
the  trenches  and  I  am  sorry  to  leave  them.  I  am  greatly 
disappointed  now.  I  am  convinced  that  these  simple 
peasants  have  much  more  knowledge  and  noble  feeling 
than  I  ever  supposed;  while  I  have  come  to  see  that,  in 
comparison  with  them,  I  myself  know  much  less,  and  feel 
much  less  nobly,  than  I  ever  imagined."  That  was  a 
sincere  confession.  I  suppose,  my  Friend,  that  to  you, 
too,  such  confessions  are  not  unknown  in  your  parish. 


V 

But  look,  my  Friend,  how  wonderful  is  this!  Be- 
sides the  humility  of  man  to  man  that  has  been  shown  in 
this  War,  there  has  arisen  another  kind  of  humility,— 
even  the  humility  of  man  to  all  Nature.  A  whole  year 
now  have  men  been  close  to  their  animals,  sleeping  by  / 
their  horses  and  eating  alongside  their  oxen.  A  whole 
year  now  have  millions  of  the  healthiest  men  in  the 


}K  II  B  A     It  P  K  B  A 


world  sat  and  lain  under  the  earth,  with  their  face  rest- 
ing on  the  soil  and  embracing  the  wood  and  stones  in 
their  sleep.  A  whole  year  now  have  men  looked  at 
herbs  and  plants,  and  even  the  roots  of  plants,  touching 
them  in  the  closest  intimacy,  breathing  in  them,  living 
with  them,  and  whispering  with  them.  From  this  in- 
timacy of  man  with  Nature  nothing  is  excluded :  neither 
W3.te\'  nor  light,  neither  the  starry  heavens,  nor  rain  nor 
fog;  nor  height  of  Carpathians,  nor  depth  of  the  Atlan- 
tic. In  this  close  fellowship  with  Nature,  every  man  has 
experienced  the  same  disappointment  that  the  Professor 
of  whom  I  spoke  told  me  he  had  felt  among  the  Serbian 
peasants  in  the  trenches  at  Belgrade.  That  is  to  say, 
every  man  has  looked  deeper  into  Nature;  into  her  life, 
into  her  very  soul ;  and,  looking  deeper,  he  has  perceived 
that  Nature  also  lives;  lives,  and  suffers  and  thinks; 
even  thinks  by  some  secret  transcendental  organ,  as  he 
himself  does, — he,  the  boasting  king  of  nature.  And 
further,  every  man  who  puts  his  ear  to  the  heart-beat 
of  Nature  perceives  yet  more:  that  the  life  of  Nature 
is  more  healthy  and  harmonious  than  the  life  of  man. 
And  this  precious  experience  leads  to  humility.  I  per- 
sonally have  had  this  experience — and  so,  as  I  have 
found  inquiry,  have  many  and  many  who  have  spent  at 
least  some  weeks  of  intimacy  with  the  earth  and  her 
silent  children — the  elements.  Nature  silently  suffers.  I 
was  in  the  trenches  as  a  military  chaplain.  I  listened  to 
the  breathing  of  the  earth,  and  I  felt  the  harmony  of 
life  amid  the  plant-world;  I  felt,  too,  the  pain  of  the 
trees  torn  and  ripped  by  lead  and  iron,  and  I  understood 
the  infinite  submission  of  ox  and  horse  to  higher,  foreign 
will.  And  as  I  had  listened  to  all,  felt  all,  understood  all, 
I  put  to  myself  the  question  which  many  others  have 


10 


CHRISTIANITY  AND   WAR 


put  to  themselves:  Is  indeed  Man  greater  and  better 
than  Nature?  Have  you  put  this  question  to  yourself, 
my  Friend?    Humility! 


VI 

Out  of  the  depths  have  I  cried  unto  Thee,  O  Lord! 
Are  we  not  in  the  depths — in  deeper  depths  than  was 
even  the  poet  of  the  Psalms,  my  friend?  But  have  no 
fear;  in  these  very  depths  religion  will  be  born.  Often 
very  often,  when  men  are  in  the  deepest  depths  they  are 
nearest  God.  I  will  speak  now  upon  the  third  kind  of 
humility,  which  is  born  in  the  depths, — humility  towards 
God.  Der  Einsige  und  sein  Eigenthmn,  i.  e.  proud  man 
has  lain  hidden  behind  a  heap  of  earth  under  a  rain  of 
lead  and  iron,  has  watched  the  ants  in  this  heap,  and 
thought  that  his  own  life  was  not  much  surer,  that  he 
was  no  more  the  lord  of  his  life  than  the  ant  which  was 
under  his  foot.  One  must  know  that  the  man  who  is 
hidden  in  the  black  earth,  and  surrounded  with  a  music 
of  lead  and  iron,  has  a  philosophy  of  life  quite  dififerent 
from  that  of  the  man  who,  in  peace-time  in  a  great  town, 
in  the  drawing-room  after  lunch  sits  and  quietly  thinks 
over  his  business.  Millions  of  things  which  have  great 
worth  for  the  latter  are  for  the  former  quite  worthless. 
By  the  former,  love,  money,  ordinary  business,  most  of 
the  affections,  most  of  the  ambitions — these  are  all  for- 
gotten. In  the  battle  of  Valevo  an  Austrian  officer  was 
seriously  wounded.  He  died  on  the  battlefield.  He  was 
found  lying  on  his  back  with  hands  clutching  the  photo- 
graph of  a  little  child.  To  this  man  had  returned  before 
he  died  the  recollection  of  his  family.     The  past  came 


II 


mHBA     I1,PKBA 


back  to  him  just  before  his  death.  In  general,  however, 
men  in  the  trenches  hve  exclusively  in  the  present,  and 
have  in  eye  only  two  things:  life  and  victory.  But  these 
two  things  of  worth  are  so  little  dependent  upon  the  men 
themselves!  They  feel  it;  they  are  convinced  of  it 
They  feel  that  these  two  values  are  valueless  before  some 
Third  which  dominates  all.  That  is  an  age-long  ex- 
perience of  the  human  race  in  War.  In  ancient  times 
God  was  called  "the  Lord  of  hosts",— the  Lord  of  ar- 
mies, in  modern  speech.  And  indeed  nowhere  else  does 
one  feel  so  intensely  that  God  is  near  as  on  the  field  of 
battle;  that  He  is  so  overwhelming,  so  irresistible,  so 
omnipotent.  Even  the  man  who  in  time  of  peace  never 
believed  in  God  feels  that  a  Third,  one  unknown,  is  in- 
tervening in  human  life  and  is  taking  into  His  hands 
the  bridles  of  all  human  movement.  I  personally  have 
experienced  this,  that  War  has  converted  many  of  the 
most  fierce  unbelievers  into  believers.  The  Socialists  in 
Serbia  fought  as  bravely  as  the  most  ardent  Nationalists. 
I  heard  from  many  of  these  Socialists  that  during  this 
War  they  had  come  to  believe  in  God.  Travelling  from 
Nish  to  Belgrade,  a  Socialist  soldier  told  me  of  the  suf- 
ferings he  went  through  during  the  War  and  he  closed 
with  these  words :  "As  a  Socialist  I  considered  that  I 
must  be  an  Atheist  too.  That  was  my  mistake.  Now 
I  have  new  thoughts,  a  new  soul.  Believe  me.  War  gives 
a  new  soul  to  a  man.  God,  Who  had  the  last  place  in 
my  thoughts,  now^  occupies  the  first."  I  am  sure  that 
no  missioner  has  converted  so  many  unbelievers  as  has 
this  War.  War  is  the  greatest  missioner.  If  Heaven 
sends  War  to  Earth,  it  sends  it  as  a  missionary  to  turn 
the  eyes  of  Earth  towards  Heaven.  And  so,  to  the  ques- 
tion, 'Where  to-day  is  Christianity?'  we  need  not  give  a 


12 


CHRISTIANITY   AND   WAR 


despairing  answer.  We  can  reply:  It  is  there,  where 
it  was,  and  even  where  it  before  never  was.'  Where  it 
was  it  is  now  strengthened,  and  where  it  was  not  it  is  now 
springing  up.  Where  is  Christianity?  Are  you  agreed 
with  me,  my  Friend,  when  I  say  it  is  always  there  where 
suffering  has  created  humility  of  man  to  man,  of  man  to 
Nature,  and  of  man  to  God? 


VII 


But  so  soon  as  we  have  said  what  we  have  said  we 
are  up  against  another  important  question:  ^ow  is 
Christianity  to  be  reconciled  with  War?'  The  answer: 
in  no  v.ay  at  all.  Yes,  my  Friend,  Christianity  can  in 
no  way  be  reconciled  with  War.  Christianity  is  white; 
War  is  black.  Christianity  is  midday;  War  is  midnight. 
Therefore,  perhaps,  the  men  who  find  themselves  en- 
circled by  black  are  longing  for  white;  they  who  are  en- 
circled by  midnight  are  longing  for  midday.  Without 
doubt  War  strengthens  the  religious  consciousness  of 
men  like  all  great  catastrophes.  And  yet  Christianity 
neither  causes  nor  requires  nor  reconciles  itself  with 
War.  Doubtless,  too,  Christianity  gains  by  War  many 
more  followers,  and  yet  Christianity  never  desires  to 
gather  followers  by  this  manner.  Never  in  the  world's 
history  existed  so  sincere  a  desire  for  Christian  peace 
and  love  as  now  exists  in  contemporary  Europe.  Never 
did  the  ideal  of  Christ  seem  to  enlightened  humanity  so 
sublir.^e  over  all  other  ideals,  so  true,  so  indis.pensa])le 
as  it  is  now  in  this  time  of  cataclysm.  But  the  man  who 
awaits  the  cataclysm  of  War  for  the  benefit  of  Chris- 


es 


m  PI  B  A     U  P  K  B  A 


tianity  will  be  similar  to  the  old  sceptic  of  Galilee  who 
asked  a  miracle  of  Christ  before  believeinj^  in  Him. 
Blessed  are  they  who  have  seen  no  miracle,  and  vet  have 
believed !  Blessed  are  they  who  before  this  cataclysm  of 
War  reached  this  religious  consciousness  and  Christian 
ideal !  They  are  the  men  built  of  better  material.  Christ 
did  not  work  miracles  for  the  sake  of  those  who  believed, 
but  for  the  sake  of  those  who  did  not  believe.  The 
miracle  of  War,  too,  God  allows  not  for  the  sake  of  the 
believers  but  for  the  unbelievers.  Aliracles  are  never 
anything  other  than  inferior  aid  to  belief — an  inferior 
aid  for  inferior  natures.  Such  an  aid  for  such  natures 
is  the  War  too.  But  for  the  superior  intelligence  and 
the  noble  heart  Natur  is  the  chief  aid  to  belief,  and  a 
miracle  only  incidental  and  exceptional;  the  whole  of 
Nature  is,  indeed,  one  great  "miracle",  and  all  other  lit- 
tle miracles  are  only  tedious  methods  of  education  for 
lower  intelligence  and  the  less  noble  souls.  Men  of  har- 
monious soul  feel  God  in  the  midst  of  peace  as  intensely 
as  the  man  of  unharmonious  soul  feels  Him  in  the  midst 
of  War.  For  the  former  one  ray  of  the  sun  is  sufficient 
to  write  before  their  eyes  the  name  of  God;  whereas  the 
later  cannot  read  the  great  Name  unless  it  be  written  in 
thunder  and  lightning,  by  eclipses  and  earthquakes  and 
rivers  of  blood,  and  by  all  the  misery  of  War.  Hun- 
dreds of  those  who,  before  the  War,  could  not  see  God  in 
Nature  have  met  Him  in  the  War.  Thousands  of  those 
who  in  time  of  peace  looked  down  upon  the  Gospel  from 
their  lofty  heights  sought  it  in  War  with  longing  and  su- 
perstition, that  they  might  protect  their  heads  from  the 
enemy's  bulles.  All  those  who  had  ridiculed  Religion  in 
peace  time  stopped  silent  after  the  miracle  of  War  had 
come:  Silent  they  go  into  Church,  silent  they  visit  ceme- 


14 


CHRISTIANITY   AND   WAR 


teries,  silent  count  the  graves  of  their  friends,  and  cal- 
culate their  own  place  alongside  them.  Their  soul  is  suf- 
fering a  shock;  their  silence  should  be  respected  as  we 
respect  a  death-chamber,  because  in  their  souls  an  old 
world  is  dying  to  give  place  to  a  new.  In  humiliation 
now  they  perceive  that  all  their  one-sided  preaching  on 
'scientific  ethics'  and  'emancipation  from  religion'  was 
only  empty  phraseology;  but  they  perceive,  too,  that  this 
War  has  brought  the  greatest  benefit  to  themselves :  the 
War  has  rescued  them  from  their  errors  and  delusions, 
for  now  they  know  the  center  point  of  the  universe  to  be 
not  in  themselves,  but  God.  The  War  has  brought  them 
to  sobriety  and  to  punishment.  This  punishment  con- 
sists in  their  shame  that  they  could  not  perceive  in  peace 
time  the  presence  of  the  unseen  powers  of  the  Universe; 
that  they  had  dethroned  God  and  defied  man;  and  that 
they  allowed  their  personal  pride  to  make  them  incapable 
of  humility  towards  Nature,  Man  and  God.  This  War 
has  come  as  poison  against  poison — poison  from  outside 
as  antidote  to  poison  inside.  Christianity  does  not  use 
evil  against  evil.  By  evil,  indeed,  a  man  sometimes  comes 
sooner  to  a  good  goal,  but  that  very  goal  itself  ceases 
then  to  be  good,  since  it  was  attained  by  evil.  To  be 
first  in  the  race  is  in  itself  a  good  thing,  is  it  not?  You 
may  stand  and  applaud  the  champion  in  the  competition. 
But  imagine  that  in  this  very  moment  you  get  the  as- 
surance that  this  champion  had  during  the  race  dug  a 
knife  into  the  ribs  and  back  of  his  horse  that  he  might 
cover  the  ground  more  quickly;  and  imagine,  still  fur- 
ther, that  in  the  moment  of  the  rider's  triumph,  the 
horse  sinks  down  to  earth  by  reason  of  his  wounds !  I 
suppose  your  great  applause  would  be  changed  into  an 
outburst  of  fury  against  this  horseman.     Suddenly  his 


15 


Hi  I!  B  A     I^  P  K  B  A 


good  c-^oal  will  seem  no  longer  good  to  you,  but  horrible 
in  the  moment  of  your  new  experience.  St.  Paul  called 
his  life  a  race.  ^^lethinks  that  the  whole  history  of 
Christianity  represents  a  race.  In  this  race  to  the  best 
goal  in  the  world  one  should  go  by  the  best  ways,  but  in 
the  long  history  of  Christianity  men  have  gone  by  both 
good  and  evil  ways,  and  men  have  used  good  and  evil 
methods.  It  was  a  great  mistake  to  think  that  men 
could  come  by  Pagan  methods  to  real  Christianity,  as 
it  is  a  mistake  to  fear  that  by  Christian  methods  we  are 
going  to  Paganism.  I  am  sure  Christianit}'  has  never 
failed  in  regard  to  the  goal,  but  she  has  sometimes 
failed  in  her  nictJiods.  Therefore  the  race  of  Christianity 
has  been  so  long.  For  evil  methods  only  seem  to  bring 
us  near  to  the  good  goal ;  in  reality  they  take  us  farther 
away  from  it.  For  this  reason,  however,  much  apparent 
and  momentary  benefit  may  accrue  to  Christianity  by 
War,  she  cannot  accord  with  War.  She  cannot  readily 
accord  with  War  either  ( i )  regarding  it  as  a  Miracle  or 
(2)  as  Evil.  Unfortunately,  during  many  centuries 
Christianity  has  been  often  supported  by  two  methods. 
Miracles  and  Evil,  by  tw^o  quite  unnecessary  and  super- 
fluous methods,  which  she  ought  not  to  have  need  of — 
especially  after  19  centuries  of  her  existence.  When 
we  were  still  at  the  University  w^e  had  this  conviction — 
do  you  remember,  my  Friend? — and  this  conviction  is 
now  strengthened  by  War. 

VIII 

But — novv^  comes  the  last  question — when  Christianity 
cannot  be  reconciled  with  War  why  does  she  not  hinder 
the  War?  Let  me  answer  frankly:  Simply  because  she 

16 


CHRISTIANITY   AND   WAR 


cannot.  Christianity  is  not  yet  grown  strong  enough  suc- 
cessfully to  offer  resistance  to  all  the  evil  in  the  world. 
Christianity  has  not  yet  become  such  a  power  that  she 
can  prevent  all  oppression.  She  is  still,  even  now,  more 
of  an  external  than  an  internal  force ;  she  is  still,  now,  a 
Beautiful  cathedral  which  men  regard  more  from  outside 
than  feel  and  built  in  themselves  inside. 

Why,  for  instance,  did  not  Christianity  prevent  the 
bloody  circus  games  of  Nero?     Because  she  was  too 
weak  to  do  it.    As  soon  as  she  became  stronger  she  did 
it.    Why  did  not  Christanity  prevent  the  crimes  of  the 
Christian  Byzantine  kings,  and  the  many  dark  sins  of 
her  own  chief  representatives?     Because  she  was  not 
ethically  grow^n  enough  to  do  it.    Why  did  not  Christian- 
ity suppress  the  Slave  Trade  earlier  than  the  19th  cen- 
tury?   Because  she  lacked  the  power  to  do  it.    And  fin- 
ally, why  does  not  Christianity  in  the  20th  century  stop 
the  World  War?     Because  she  is  to-day,  too,  weaker 
than  the  opposing  forces.     Christianity  came  into  the 
world  not  like  a  finished  and  polished  statue,  which  like 
an  idol  has  to  produce  miracles;  but  she  came  as  seed 
which  has  to  "die",  to  germinate,  to  grow,  to  be  trodden 
down,  to  be  lost, — in  a  word,  to  suffer  all  those  manifold 
and  painful  vicissitudes,  through  which  every  seed  must 
go.    Christianity  has  come  from  the  supernatural  world 
by  a  natural  way  into  this  world,  and  by  a  natural  way, 
like  every  seed,  she  has  developed  and  grown  in  this 
world.     She  does  not  yet  dominate  the  world,  but  she 
does  serve  the  world.    She  is  not  yet  the  full  inspirer  of 
politics,  but  she  has  a    ministry  in  politics.     She  does 
not  yet  lead  the  world;  because  she  is  still  too  weak  suc- 
cessfully to  resist  its  animal  motives  by  her  spiritual 
motives.     Many    and    many    individuals    have  reached 


17 


KHBA     I^PKBA 


Christian  perfection,  but  human  society  has  reached  it 
not  yet.  But  she  grows  and  strengthens.  For  the 
largest  and  noblest  tree  in  history,  as  is  Christianity,  it 
is  not  too  long  a  time  yet,  this  2,000  years,  that  it  has 
take  to  spread  its  branches  and  to  begin  to  bring  forth 
fruit. 

During  this  War  Professor  Baumgarten,  Professor 
of  Theology  in  Kiel,  has  delivered  a  lecture  in  which  he 
explained  the  relation  between  Christianity  and  the  great 
War  of  to-day.  He  said :  "The  words  of  Christ  were  ad- 
dressed to  his  disciples ;  they  contained  no  reference  to 
the  demands  of  public  life,  but  concerned  solely  the  re- 
lationship of  the  individual  soul  to  the  individual  soul  and 
to  God.  Christ's  train  of  thought  cannot  be  accepted  as 
being  applicable  to  us  Germans,  for  our  political  situa- 
tion is  very  different  from  that  of  his  audience.  Further- 
more, Christ  never  represented  his  realm  of  peace  as 
being  attainable  by  historical  development.  He  described 
it  as  a  wonderful  achievement  of  God's.  And,  as  a  mat- 
ter of  fact,  such  a  realm  of  love  and  peace  has  its  place 
in  a  higher  world ;  it  is  the  region  of  the  personality  and 
has  nothing  zvhatever  to  do  zmth  political  or  public 
matters." 

To  so  dreadful  an  exposition  of  Christianity  has  the 
last  hundred  years  of  Biblical  Criticism  brought  theo- 
logical science  in  Germany.  In  its  extreme  results,  this 
German  Biblical  Criticism  represents  Christ  as  a  maniac 
who  has  nothing  in  common  with  the  political  and  social 
life  of  man.  And  the  truth  lies  in  a  diametrically  oppo- 
site direction !  No  normal  m.an  sows  a  seed,  physical  or 
spritual,  without  expecting  growth,  development  and 
fruit.  And  Christ — were  he  nothing  higher  than  an  or- 
dinary and  normal  man — must  also  have  expected  some 


18 


CHRISTIANITY   AND   WAR 


historical  development  from  the  seed  which  he  sowed. 
Moreover,  Christ,  as  the  conscious  founder  of  a  new  re- 
ligion, could  not  but  see  the  very  close  connection  be- 
tween religion  and  public  life.  The  Kingdom  of  God 
must  first  be  within  you  before  it  can  exist  among  you; 
such  is  the  true  teaching  of  the  Gospel.  Even  with  the 
Jews,  never  were  politics  and  religion  separated,  and 
throughout  human  history  there  has  existed  no  religion 
which  has  not  had  its  influence  on  politics.  Politics  are 
the  resultant  of  the  religion,  the  morality  and  the  edu- 
cation of  a  nation.  Politics  is  the  practical  side  of  the 
whole  spiritual  disposition  of  a  society.  If  religion  be 
separated  from  politics,  religion  becomes  fruitless,  and 
politics  become  narrow-hearted  and  selfish.  Religion 
must  inspire  politics.  And  when  politics  become  Chris- 
tian, then  the  world  will  have  become  Christian.  And 
when  the  world  shall  have  become  Christian,  then  War 
will  be  impossible — either  as  means  or  end.  But  if  so 
terrible  a  War  as  we  see  today  is  not  to  occur  in  future, 
then  neither  must  such  a  peace  as  we  had  yesterday  still 
be  possible  to-morrow.  For  Christianity  is  not  less  at 
variance  with  the  War  of  to-day  than  with  the  Peace 
of  yesterday.  The  War  of  to-day  is  the  consequence  of 
the  Peace  of  yesterday.  Every  man  who  regards  his- 
torical events  sine  ira  et  studio  will  in  this  agree  with 
me,  and  I  suppose  with  you,  too,  my  Friend.  / 

IX 

What  have  we  seen  with  our  eyes  in  the  Peace  of 
yesterday?  We  have  seen  men  thinking  only  about 
themselves,  or  at  most  about  themselves  and  their  re- 
latives.   We  have  seen  men  who  had  only  two  thoughts 


19 


mil  B  A     D;  P  K  B  A 


in  their  head:  gain  and  pleasure.  We  have  seen  strikes 
for  gain,  intrigues  for  gain  and  pleasure,  and  lies  and 
baseness  for  pleasure  and  pleasure.  We  have  seen  un- 
scrupulous oppression  for  the  weak  by  the  strong.  Have 
we  not  seen  yesterday  too — in  time  of  peace — the  slaugh- 
ter and  murder  of  men?  Have  we  not  seen  the  foolish 
pride  of  man  towards  man,  and  towards  Nature  and 
towards  God;  the  pride  of  the  Present  towards  the  Past; 
of  Science  towards  Religion,  and  of  Art  towards  Labor: 
of  Town  towards  village  and  of  the  wdiole  earthly  planet 
towards  the  cosmos.  Shall  I  mention  the  monstrous  so- 
cial, economic,  national  and  ecclesiastical  differences? 
Enough!  Perhaps  I  have  asserted  some  things  which 
are  uncertain,  but  one  thing  is  certain :  If  we  had  asked 
anyone  in  yesterday's  Peace:  "Is  this  peace  Christian  or 
not?"  we  should  have  received  a  negatve  answxr. 

What  do  we  see  to-day  in  the  War?  We  see  greater 
humility  of  man  towards  man,  of  man  towards  God  and 
of  man  tovrards  Nature,  W^e  see,  too,  a  widening  of 
every  m.an's  horizon,  for  behold !  now,  every  Englishman 
who  had  plagued  him.self  about  himself  and  his  own  af- 
fairs has  novv  a  nobler  ;:orrow  concerning  some  50  mil- 
lions of  his  fellow-countrymen,  and  of  many  times  50 
millions  of  Allies  of  England.  His  narrow  and  con- 
stricted sympathies  have  now  widened  out  over  more 
than  a  half  of  our  planet.  Moreover,  we  see  now  such 
self-sacrifice  in  all  belligerent  countries  as  we  could 
never  have  dreamed  of  during  the  peace  of  a  few  months 
ago.  And  we  see  a  great  drawing  together  of  men  to 
men;  a  great  desire  to  work  in  common  for  the  com- 
mon good;  diminished  selfishness  and  less  craving  after 
pleasure;  a  stronger  altruism  and  self-denial.  We  see 
in  Moscow^  now^  no  more  drunken  people  and  in  Paris  no 


20 


CHRISTIANITY   AND   WAR 


more  unworthy  bacchanalia.  Of  course  we  see,  too,  that 
the  price  of  this  moral  upHft  of  men  is  very,  very  great: 
blood,  agony,  devastation,  hunger,  disease.  In  the  peace 
of  yesterday,  truly,  there  was  less  suffering,  but  less  vir- 
tue too:  less  courage,  less  solidarity,  less  compassion, 
less  self-sacrifice,  less  humility.  Virtue  is  more  precious 
than  rubies,  but  the  sparks  of  virtue  can  only  be  pro- 
duced by  the  hammer  of  suffering.  Christian  ascetics 
■did  not  flagellate  themselves  out  of  mere  foolishness, 
but  to  strengthen  the  Christian  spirit  in  themselves.  By 
selfimposed  sufferings  they  accomplished  in  themselves 
what  Nature  and  Destiny,  by  the  flagellation  of  this 
present  War,  are  accomplishing  in  the  human  family. 
For  the  War  is  nothing  other  than  the  self-flagellation 
of  humanity.  You  will  say:  'But,  alas!  hov/  many  are 
dead!'  Yes,  but  great  ascetics,  too,  put  to  death  a  great 
part  of  their  being,  in  order  that  they  might  strengthen- 
the  remaining  part.  Humanity,  in  truth,  is  one  Being, 
in  spite  of  the  one  and  a  half  milliards  of  its  parts  upon 
the  earth.  Humanity  is  no  abstract  notion;  it  is  a  fact 
— one  fact,  a  unity ;  just  as  when  we  see  at  night  a  star, 
upon  which  perhaps  may  live  countless  beings,  which  yet 
to  our  eyes  appears  as  only  one  single  fact  in  the  uni- 
verse. Plato's  pan-anthropos  is  not  mere  poetry,  but  a 
natural,  scientific,  social  and  spiritual  truth.  We  are 
<:onnected  with  the  earth  v/hich  bears  us  through  the 
cosmos,  v/ith  the  atmosphere  v;e  breathe,  with  the  food 
we  take,  with  the  language  wc  speak,  v/ith  the  thoughts 
we  think,  with  the  feelings  v  c  feel,  and  with  the  occult 
radiation  which  encircles  us.  In  a  word,  we  all  are  one. 
Therefore  the  many  killed  and  dead  represent  only  the 
•mortification  of  a  part  of  the  pan-human  organism  for 
the  welfare  of  the  other  part. 


21 


mHBA    UPKBA 


When  I  say  that  humanity  is  a  unity,  a  whole,  I  mean 
not  only  humanity  in  the  present,  but  also  in  the  past 
and  in  the  future.  The  present  always  works  only  half 
for  itself  and  half  for  the  future.  Every  generation 
bears  in  itself  more  than  a  half  of  the  past.  And  thus 
more  than  a  half  of  the  sin  of  the  present  War  belongs 
to  the  peace  of  the  past.  Therefore  we  have  just  as 
much  cause  to  revolt  aganst  the  peace  of  yesterday  as 
we  have  to  weep  over  the  War  of  to-day — and  everk 
more;  I  say  more,  because  the  peace  of  yesterday 
caused  the  War  of  to-day.  Is  the  boulder  to  be  blamed 
for  rolling  down  the  mountain  slope,  or  the  person  who 
set  it  in  motion?  If  we  wish  to  free  ourselves  from  evil 
consequences,  we  must  keep  clear  from  their  causes. 
Why  do  we  today  kill  each  other's  bodies?  Because 
yesterday  we  were  destroying  each  other's  souls.  Yes- 
terday indeed  there  were  more  living  bodies  in  the  world,, 
but  fewer  living  souls.  And  to-day  there  are  more  liv- 
ing souls  and  fewer  living  bodies.    War  does  spiritualise 


X 


Who  is  against  War?  I  could  not  tell  you,  my 
Friend.  When,  in  1908,  War  seemed  imminent  between 
Serbia  and  Austro-Hungary  Tolstoy  was  yet  living.  He 
wrote  then  passionately  against  War.  Amid  all  the  talk 
about  World  War,  many  authors  expressed  themselves 
strongly  against  it.  But  now  that  we  have  been  launched 
into  a  World  War  I  could  not  give  you  one  name  of  any 
great  man  who  has  openly  declared  himself  against  this 
War.  I  don't  know  Vv'hether  Tolstoy,  if  he  had  lived  to* 
see  it,  v;ould  have  been  antagonistic  to  this  War.     Me- 


22 


CHRISTIANITY   AND   WAR 


thinks  that  against  this  War  are — nobody  and  every- 
body! 

Let  us  put  upon  one  side  the  General  Staffs.  The 
Poets  and  Artists  are  not  against  this  War:  e.g: — 

Hauptmann  and  KHnger  defended  the  Kaiser  and 
German  people  as  the  champions  of  righteousness  and 
culture. 

Maeterlinck  placed  himself  at  the  disposal  of  the 
Belgian  military  authorities  that  they  might  use  him 
against  the  Germans. 

Anatole  France,  an  old  man  of  75  years,  clothed  in 
military  uniform,  wrote:  "Soldiers  of  France,  now  shoot 
into  the  German  flesh !" 

Maxim  Gorky,  although  ill,  set  out  from  the  Island 
of  Capri  for  Russia  in  order  to  join  the  Russian  Volun- 
teers. 

Shaliapin,  the  celebrated  Russian  opera  singer,  sang 
in  the  streets  to  gather  money  for  the  volunteers. 

Kipling,  in  his  letters  to  a  French  friend,  expressed 
himself  for  a  decisive  struggle  against  Genriany.  "What 
is  to  be  done  with  the  Germans?  The  same  thing  as 
with  a  mad  dog.  When  the  dog  is  mad,  it  should  be 
killed." 

D'Annunzio  is  the  chief  instigator  and  supporter  of 
Italy's  war  with  Austro-Hungary. 

The  Socialists  are  not  against  the  War.  E.g.  So- 
cialistic leaders  in  the  German  Reichstag  shook  hands 
with  the  Kaiser  after  he  had  read  the  proclamation  of 
War.  The  Nationalistic  agitation  of  Liebknecht 
throughout  the  course  of  the  War  is  well  known. 

Gustave  Hervey  wrote  in  his  organ  La  Guerre  So- 
■ciale  "Vive  le  Tsar!"  along  with  many  patriotic  and 
l)ellicose  articles. 


23 


5K  II  B  A     I^  P  K  B  A 


The  Socialists  in  England  and  Russia  are  now 
poured  into  one  mould  with  their  nations  in  heart  and 
soul  and  spirit,  and  without  a  protest  and  without  con- 
tradiction to  their  principles,  are  now  fighting"  on  the 
battlefield. 

The  Socialists  in  Serbia  have  lost  in  this  War  their 
best  representatives,  who  have  been  complimented  upon 
their  extraordinary  bravery  on  the  battlefield. 

The  women  are  not  against  this  War.  At  the 
Women's  International  Congress  in  Paris  they  agreed 
by  resolution  that  the  women  approve  this  War,  and  de- 
mand that  it  should  continue  until  national  ideals  are 
realised. 

The  Suffragettes  in  England  have  several  times  ex- 
pressed themselves  in  favour  of  the  continuation  of  this 
War. 

The  German  women  are  fiercely  preaching  a  na- 
tional and  holy  war. 

A  mother  in  Serbia  distributed  a  card  In  Memoriam 
of  her  killed  son,  in  which  she  stated : — Glad  that  I  could 
have  a  son  to  offer  in  this  War  against  Austria." 

The  Churches  are  not  against  the  War. 

The  Russian  Holy  Synod  gave  an  order  to  the 
clergy  at  the  beginnng  of  this  conflict  to  create  enthusi- 
asm for  the  War,  and  to  pray  for  Russian  victory. 

In  Serbia  at  every  religious  service,  prayers  are  of- 
fered for  victory  over  the  Enemy;  and  if  a  Bishop  cele- 
bates  a  Liturgy  he,  with  Holy  Host  in  hand,  mentions 
the  Serbian  King,  the  English  King,  the  Russian  Tsar^ 
the  Belgian  King  and  the  French  Government. 

The  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  addressed  a  letter  to 
Mr.   Asquith  in  which  he,  as  Primate  of  the  English 


24 


CHRISTIANITY   AND   WAR 


Church,  placed  at  the  disposal  of  the  nation  all  the  forces 
of  the  Anglican  Church. 

The  Bishop  of  Lx)ndon  declined  to  consider  the  ap- 
plication of  any  candidate  for  ordination  unless  that 
candidate  was  unable  to  serve  for  the  War. 

The  Bishop  of  Pretoria  went  to  the  battlefield,  and 
reported  to  the  English  public  upon  the  condition  and 
needs  of  the  English  Army. 

All  the  clergy  of  Great  Britain,  English,  Roman 
Catholic  and  Presbyterian  pray,  preach  and  work  for  the 
victory  of  the  English  arms. 

The  Belgian  Cardinal,  Mercier,  wrote  a  patriotic 
€pi£tle  to  the  Belgian  people,  on  account  of  which  he  was 
arrested  by  the  Germans. 

The  Archbishop  of  Cologne  edited  a  Pan-Germanic 
manifesto  for  his  flock. 

A  Jesuit  Father  in  Munich  declared  that  the  words 
of  the  Kaiser  are  beyond  all  discussion. 

Erzberger,  one  of  the  leaders  of  the  Catholic  Cen- 
tral party,  wrote :  ''Nur  keine  Sentimentalitaet." 

The  Court  Bishop  of  King  Victor  Emmanuel  blessed 
the  Italian  flag  in  Rome  on  the  declaration  of  War. 

In  Italy,  "Bishops  and  priests  addressed  patriotic 
.advice  to  their  flocks,  while  Socialists  and  others  en- 
listed," as  Premier  Salandra  mentioned  in  one  of  his 
war- speeches. 

Intelligence  has  not  been  against  the  War.  Thou- 
sands of  students  from  Cambridge  aid  Oxford  went  oflF 
to  the  Front.  The  youth  of  the  Serbian  University  led 
the  Army  on  Rudnik,  and  gave  an  example  of  self-sac- 
rifice. Amongst  the  Russian  students,  where  was  al- 
ways a  great  contingent  of  Nihilists  and  Socialists,  ap- 
peared the  greatest  enthusiasm  for  the  War. 


m  n  B  A     I^  P  K  B  A 


The  simple  folk  have  not  opposed  the  War.  The 
peasants  go  and  are  silent.  They  fight  and  are  silent. 
They  die  and  are  silent.  They  bear  the  heaviest  bur- 
dens of  the  War  upon  their  shoulders.  The  working 
classes,  like  the  peasants,  like  the  Russian  Cossacks  and 
Hungarian  farmer,  go  obediently  and  stoically  to  death. 

Now,  who  is  against  the  War? 

All  the  zi'orld!  All  those  whom  I  have  mentioned 
above,  and  all  others  whom  I  have  not  mentioned.  These 
last  three  years  I  have  been  with  the  Army,  and  during 
the  whole  period  I  have  not  met  a  single  man  who  loved 
the  War,  no  single  man  for  whom  the  War  was  a  poetic 
enterprise.  Be  sure,  my  Friend,  that  all  men  hate  the 
War,  even  those  who  become  by  War  rich  and  famous. 
Only  those  can  love  the  War  who  regard  it  coldly  from  a 
distance  and  from  the  time  of  Peace.  Our  generation 
might  very  wxll  be  fascinated  by  the  Trojan  War,  by  the 
Crusades,  by  the  Napoleonic  campaigns,  but  in  no  wise 
could  this  present  generation  fall  in  love  with  the  War 
of  to-day.  Those  Wars  were  foreign  sulTerings,  and 
foreign  suffering  regarded  from  a  distance  is  beautiful 
as  a  sunset — as  a  sunset  seen  through  a  London  fog.  But 
this  present  War  is  our  own  siiifering,  our  own  tears, 
our  own  dying, — who  could  see  anything  beautiful  in  his 
own  tears? — except  he  looked  through  a  mist  of  years! 

How  much  less  beautiful  were  human  history  with- 
out Gethsemane  and  Golgotha !  The  beauty  of  Golgotha 
grows  wath  the  years.  The  beauty  of  the  present  War 
will  be  perceived  by  the  people  of  future  centuries.  But 
for  us,  now,  only  what  is  far  from  us  is  beautiful — the 
Peace !  But  no  one  of  us  craves  for  the  Peace  of  yester- 
day, for  such  an  un-Christian  peace  during  which  War 
was  prepared,  explosives  and  howitzers  were  gathered, 


26 


CHRISTIANITY   AND   WAR 


submarines  and  forts  were  built;  a  peace  in  which  War 
was  preached  and  in  which  nobody  was  content. 

XI 

Our  'orientation'  in  this  War  will  depend  upon  our 
general  views  of  life.  There  are  only  two  views  of  life: 
religious  and  anti-religious.  But  the  worst  religious  view 
of  life  is  better  than  the  best  anti-religious.  Have  you 
seen,  my  Friend,  in  the  British  Museum  those  African 
and  Asiatic  idols?  Be  sure  that  those  idols  made  those 
men  more  happy  than  any  Atheist  has  ever  been  made 
happy  by  his  most  cultivated  Atheism.  Whatever  kind 
of  religion  it  may  be,  it  comforts,  encourages,  and  incites 
to  self-sacrifice,  and  they  are  three  things  which  pure 
Atheism  can  never  suggest.  However  primitive  may 
be  the  religion,  it  is  always  the  greatest  good  possessed 
by  the  believer.  Think  how  immense  a  good  is  the  Chris- 
tian religion  for  our  generation.  Think  if  the  Christian 
religion  had  gone  under  in  her  century-long  conflict  with 
evil  and  unbelief,  with  what  now  could  we  console  our- 
selves, encourage  ourselves  and  gird  ourselves  for  sac- 
rifices? Would  it  be  perhaps  by  scientific  morality? 
Or  by  metaphysics,  or  by  material  interests?  All  these 
together  without  Christianity  do  not  give  life,  but  kill 
it.  Think  further  that  our  religion  is  given  us  not  to  be 
an  ornament  in  our  times  of  happiness,  but  rather  to  be 
a  support  in  our  suffering.  And  as  a  support  in  suffer- 
ing Religion  always  shows  herself — and  in  this  time  of 
War  especially — excellent.  She  is  potent  where  suffer- 
ing is,  as  a  medicine  is  potent  where  sickness  is.  Do  not 
all  Christ's  words  sound  in  your  ears  like  those  of  a  doc- 
tor to  a  sick  man.    Joseph  de  Maistre  was  terribly  embit- 

27 


5K  n  B  A    d;  P  K  B  A 


tered  against  Rousseau  and  Voltaire  on  account  of  their 
superficial  theism.    That  is  the  age-long  contest  between 
Augustinianism  and  Pelagianism.     Suffering  is  in  the 
essence  of  all  creatures.     St.  Paul  was  not  alone  in  this 
conviction.    With  Paul  stands  Augustine,  with  Augus- 
tine Jansen,  with  Jansen  Pascal.     Of  this  conviction 
were  Joseph  de  Maistre  and  Dostojevski.    I  would  say 
that  life  is  tragic  rather  than  sick.     I  don't  know  what 
drama  is  being  enacted  on  other  planets,  but  on  our 
planet — I   see  it  clearly — is  played  Tragedy.      In   the 
myriads  of  minor  tragedies  consists  the  one  great  trag- 
edy of  this  Earth.    The  web  and  woof  of  this  great  life 
tragedy  is  woven  of  pain,  tears,  fears,  ignorance,  hero- 
ism, death.    In  this  is  interwoven  the  War,  too;  the  War 
of  man  against  things,  against  plants  and  animals:  of 
man  against  man;  and  man  against  God.     Christianity 
comprehends  life  as  a  vivid,  intelligent  drama,  and  never 
as  a  perpetual  metaphysical,  deaf  and  blind  repetition. 
Every  drama  has  its  beginning  and  its  end.    The  drama 
of  man's  history,  too,  had  its  beginning  and  must  have 
its  end.    Geology  and  astronomy  agree  in  this  point  with 
the  Bible.     The  earth  came  into  being,  has  developed, 
and  v/ill  vanish.    Man's  drama  upon  the  earth  was  from 
the  beginning  tragic.     Whence  came  this   element  of 
tragedy?    The  Bible  has  an  answer  and  an  explanation. 
Physical  science  begins  to  have  an  answer  too,  in  accord 
with  the  Bible.     To  this  question  the  Bible  answers  :— 
Because  in  the  beginning  Man  was  poised  midway  be- 
tween God  and  Nature ;  he  lost  the  balance,  he  turned 
his   face  from  God,  and  plunged  himself  wholly  into 
Nature.     Hence,  says  the  Bible,  because  to  man  came 
a  Satanic  thought,  that  he  could  become  God.    But  man, 
in  his  attempt  at  realising  this  dream,  instead  of  coming 

28 


CHRISTIANITY   AND   WAR 


face  to  face  towards  God,  wandered  away  with  his  back 
upon  God  and  more  and  more  into  things.  'Bhus,  in- 
stead of  becoming  God — or  even  getting  nearer  to  God 
— he  began  to  worship  things  and  became  himself  a  thing 
amongst  things.  When  this  human  tragedy  had  been 
played  for  ages  upon  the  earth,  came  Christ  to  open  the 
final  act  in  the  world  drama.  Now  begins  the  return  to 
God.  But  this  return  is  long  and  painful.  Easier  was 
it  for  man  to  mount  to  pride  than  to  return  from  pride  to 
humility.  Behold,  one  thousand  years  have  passed,  and 
a  second  thousand  nearly  ended,  and  still  the  Christ- 
period  in  the  human  drama  is  not  near  the  end.  (The 
Christ-period  comprehends  the  time  from  Christ  des- 
pised on  Golgotha  to  Christ  glorified  in  God's  Kingdom 
upon  earth.)  Christ's  glory  is  still  far  off.  Instead  of 
listening  to  angelic  voices,  we  are  deafened  by  the  roar 
of  guns  and  the  clash  of  swords.  Involuntarily  now  we 
recall  the  words  of  Victor  Hugo : — 

One  thing,  O  Jesus,  One  mystery 
Doth  frighten  me: 
The  echo  of  Thy  voice  grows 
Ever  weaker  to  our  ear. 

("This  Century".) 

But  so  it  appears  only.  In  truth,  the  voice  of  Christ 
becomes  clearer  and  clearer.  And  far  clearer  in  the  War 
of  to-day  than  in  the  Peace  of  yesterday.  For  the  peace 
of  yesterday  was  not  His  peace,  and  therefore,  in  this 
peace  was  felt  so  much  unrest  of  Soul ;  therefore,  every 
man  who  sought  a  true  peace  was  forced  to  take  refuge 
within  himself,  as  we  do  to-day.  Still,  we  take  good 
heart  of  hope.  Christ  was  ever  going  through  the  world, 
invisible;  through  the  deeps,  through  catacombs.     We 

29 


m  H  B  A     H  P  K  B  A 


will  hope  that  after  this  storm  upon  life's  ocean  will 
come  a  peace  like  unto  the  peace  of  Christ,  i.e.  a  peace 
which  will  never  be  the  cause  of  a  new  War,  but  the 
preparation  for  a  better  and  more  God-like  peace.  Now 
more  than  ever  true  Christians  feel  Christ's  presence 
on  their  stormtossed  vessel.  They  feel  Him  standing 
in  their  midst;  they  hear  His  voice:  'O  ye  of  little  faith, 
wherefore  do  ye  doubt?  The  end  of  all  will  still  be 
good,'    Or  as  Browning  sad:  ''The  best  is  yet  to  be." 

Life,  from  the  Christian  point  of  view,  is  essentially 
an  optimistic  tragedy.  Christianity  sees  the  dark  clouds 
enveloping  human  life ;  but  through  these  cloud-tragedies 
perceives  the  warm  brilliance  of  a  heavenly  light.  There 
are  in  movement  everywhere  the  hosts  of  War,  but  over 
all  is  the  Lord  of  Hosts,  and  wherever  the  presence  of 
that  LORD  is  felt,  there  is  Optimism. 

xn 

In  this  letter,  my  dear  Friend,  I  would  fain  have 
written  to  you  about  the  Odysseus — wanderings  of  the 
human  soul.  But  I  must  break  off  here.  The  War 
snatches  my  pen  from  my  fingers,  and  War's  miseries 
attract  my  hands  and  my  thoughts  elsewhere. 

I  would  fain  have  written  to  you  as  to  how  the  soul, 
as  it  wanders  away  from  God,  is  overclouded  with  un- 
rest and  how,  returning  to  God,  it  returns  to  peace — 
to  the  only  real  peace.  Certainly  you  know  this,  my 
Friend,  as  St.  Augustine  knew  it.  I  would  fain  have 
written  to  you  of  my  War  experience.  I  would  like  to 
have  proved  to  you  that  all  the  beauty  and  sweetness  of 
this  world,  where  "we  see  through  a  glass  darkly", 
makes  a  man  who  is  without  faith  as  unhappy  as  possi- 


30 


CHRISTIANITY   AND   WAR 


ble,  and  that  the  world,  with  all  its  charms,  makes  a 
man  who  has  faith  half-happy.  A  whole  happiness  be- 
longs not  to  this  tragical  world.  All  this  world  repre- 
sents unrest,  but  with  faith  it  represents  the  half-rest. 
A  whole  rest  belongs  to  another  more  godlike  world.  I 
would  write  you — but  let  us  leave  that  for  another  time 
— I  would  write  you  how  many,  many  men  midst  this 
war-storm  have  found  by  faith  their  half-happiness  and 
half-rest,  how  many  through  the  blackest  clouds  have 
looked  and  seen  the  shining  stars,  and  have  had  the  same 
feeling  as  one  of  the  greatest  men  of  Western  Christian- 
ity who  said:  Domine inqiiietum  est  cor  nostrum 

donee  reqniescat  in  Te!'^) 


*)  O  Lord,  our  heart  is  ne'er  at  peace  till  it  find 
rest  in  Thee.  —  St.  Augustine's  Confessions. 


31 


^ 


